CONGRATS ON FINALLY MAKING IT TO THE PLAYOFFS
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...-series-hosmer-shields-saberhaen-brett-092614
A lot has happened since Royals last played in postseason
Sam Gardner
FOX Sports
SEP 27, 2014 12:16a ET
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SEP 27, 2014 12:16a ET
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Royals pop champagne
SEP 26, 11:33 pm
The Royals celebrate a trip to the playoffs in Chicago.
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<style type="text/css">div.premium-image{margin:0 0 5px 10px}div.none{width:100%}</style> Updated SEP 27, 2014 1:03a ET
The last time the
Kansas City Royals took the field in a playoff game was Oct. 27, 1985.
That drought -- the longest active in the four major sports -- will end this October as the Royals clinched a playoff spot for the first time in 29 years with a 3-1 win at the Chicago
White Sox on Friday night. KC clinched at least a wild card and trails the Detroit Tigers by one game in the AL Central with two games remaining.
That last playoff appearance in 1985 was Game 7 of the World Series. The Royals reached the deciding game after climbing out of a 3-1 hole against the St. Louis
Cardinals — a feat that would have been a bigger deal if the Royals hadn’t done the same to overtake the Toronto Blue Jays in that fall's ALCS.
The '85 Royals reached the two-round postseason by winning the AL West with a 91-71 regular-season record -- the least amount of wins by any of the four division champions.
Regardless of how Kansas City arrived at Game 7 of the Fall Classic, and regardless of how many other teams had better records, there was no doubt that Dick Howser’s club was the better team on Oct. 27, 1985. That's when ace Bret Saberhagen — who the day before become a father — shut down the Cardinals for the second time in five days.
When St. Louis' Andy Van Slyke flew out to Darryl Motley to end Game 7 at Royals Stadium, the 1985 Kansas City Royals claimed the franchise's first and only World Series championship.
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Unfortunately for Royals fans, 1985 was the last time Kansas City was a serious contender. And there haven’t been many close calls, either.
In 1986, the Royals won 76 games were closer to last than first in their division. In ‘87, they won 83 games — hardly inspiring baseball but enough to finish two games back in the weak AL West. In '87, they won 84 games, but finished third, 19½ back of Oakland.
There was promise in 1989, Bo Jackson’s only All-Star season. The Royals were within a game and a half of Oakland on Sept. 1, but a 13-15 Royals slide to end the year gave the eventual World Series-winning A’s all the breathing room they needed to take the division.
Royals fans know how the story goes from there. The team was marginally competitive on-and-off since then through the 1994 players’ strike, but never truly in the mix.
After the labor dispute was resolved — and the playoffs were expanded to four teams from each league — Kansas City proceeded to finish under .500 in 17 of the next 18 seasons, with 2003 the lone exception. Angel Berroa and
Tony Pena breathed some life into the organization, however briefly and a Cy Young campaign in 2009 from
Zack Greinke couldn’t keep the Royals’ ship afloat.
By last season gave Kansas City fans reason to believe. They weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible. Behind the bats of Salvador Perez,
Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer and the arms of
James Shields and
Ervin Santana, they finished 5½ games out of the second wild-card spot at 86-76.
Most importantly, there was reason to believe they could get over the hump.
And finally, this year, they did
. Friday night's win on the south side of Chicago means that next week, nearly 29 years removed from Game 7 of the 1985 World Series, Kansas City will be competing in a playoff game once again.
The absurdity of the Royals’ playoff drought can be captured quite easily in numbers. More than 10,565 days, more than 250,000 hours, more than 15 million minutes is a long time for fans to wait, and is nearly a decade longer than any other team in baseball.
Here are a few facts to consider when analyzing how long Royals fans have been waiting for this moment.
In baseball, since the Royals last playoff game:
• Twenty-six members of the Royals’ current 40-man roster were not born for the Royals’ last playoff game — and
Wade Davis was just an infant during the 1985 World Series run.
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Rich Pilling-Getty Images North America
World Series MVP Bret Saberhagen won two games in the 1985 Fall Classic.
• Seventy-three no-hitters have been thrown, including 12 perfect games. Only one of those (Saberhagen’s 1991 no-hitter) was thrown by a Royal, and only one (
Jon Lester’s 2008 no-hitter) came against Kansas City.
• Three Royals players (Kevin Seitzer, Mike Sweeney and
Johnny Damon) have recorded 200 hits in a season and two Royals pitchers (Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza) have recorded a 20-win season.
• There have been 97 instances of a player hitting for the cycle, including two each from John Olerud, Brad Wilkerson,
Adrian Beltre,
Michael Cuddyer and
Aaron Hill. Only one Royal (George Brett) hit for the cycle in that span.
• Including Howser, the Royals have had 13 managers since the 1985 season. Hal McRae and John Walthan are the only two since Howser with a record above .500 with the team.
• Every other team currently in the AL Central has reached the World Series at least once (with all but the White Sox reaching at least twice). Every other team in baseball has at least reached the postseason, and all but six have won a pennant.
• Cal Ripken played the final 2,029 games of his consecutive games streak, then played another 304 games for good measure.
• Seventeen different players have had a 50-home-run season, four players have joined the 40-40 club, six players have hit four home runs in one game and eight players have hit a homer in at least six consecutive games.
• Four players have recorded a 10-RBI game, six players have hit two grand slams in one game and 16 players (including two Royals) have recorded a six-hit game.
• There have been seven unassisted triple plays and four big-league players have had a hit streak of 35 games or longer.
• Just one hitter (
Miguel Cabrera) has won a batting triple crown, but seven different pitchers have led their respective league in wins, ERA and strikeouts in a season (
Justin Verlander,
Clayton Kershaw,
Jake Peavy,
Johan Santana, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens)
• The
Red Sox have broken their World Series curse three times, but the
Cubs’ is still intact.
Elsewhere in the sports world, since the Royals’ last playoff game:
• Twenty-three of the 30 current NBA teams have appeared in a conference finals series. Of the seven teams that have not, only four (the Hawks, Clippers, Warriors and Wizards) existed in 1985. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who have not reached the playoffs since 2004, own the longest playoff drought in the league.
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Jim Gund-Getty Images North America
Michael Jordan took a break from winning NBA titles to play minor-league baseball for the Birmingham Barons.
• Michael Jordan won five MVPs and six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and also took a break to play minor-league baseball.
• The Charlotte Hornets were founded, then moved to New Orleans, then were replaced by the Charlotte Bobcats, who have since changed their name back to the Hornets.
• All 32 current NFL teams have played in an AFC or NFC Championship Game, and 24 of those teams have also appeared in a Super Bowl. Of the eight that have not reached a Super Bowl, only six (the Lions, Jets, Chiefs, Browns, Vikings and Dolphins) existed in 1985. The Buffalo Bills, who have not reached the playoffs since 1999, own the league’s longest playoff drought.
• Six different NFL quarterbacks have won multiple Associated Press MVP awards (Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady).
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Focus On Sport-Getty Images North America
Hall of Fame wideout Jerry Rice put together a nice streak during the Royals' playoff drought.
• Favre started in 297 consecutive regular season games over 19 seasons (321 including playoffs). During those 19 seasons (1992-2010), the Cleveland Browns had 22 different quarterbacks start a game, and that includes three seasons during which the Browns did not exist.
• Jerry Rice recorded a catch in 274 consecutive games.
• Twenty-one of the 30 current NHL teams have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final series. Of the nine franchises that have not, only four (the Maple Leafs, Blues, Coyotes and Islanders) existed in 1985. The Edmonton Oilers, who have not reached the playoffs since 2005, own the longest playoff drought in the league.
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Steve Babineau-NHLI
Jaromir Jagr also put together a nice streak during the Royals' drought.
• Jaromir Jagr appeared in 1,473 regular-season games for seven different teams. Shane Doan has played in 1,315, all with the same franchise. Jay Bouwmeester has played in 717 consecutive games and counting, a record for a defenseman.
• The football team at Mount Union (Ohio) won 54 consecutive games, then had their streak snapped, then won another 55 in a row. The women’s soccer team at North Carolina won 103 consecutive games, losing one, and then winning 101 more in a row.
• Eight Winter Olympics and seven Summer Olympics have been held, with the US hosting each event once.
In pop culture:
• In 1985, the cost of a gallon of gas was $1.20, the cost of a first class stamp was 20 cents and the
median household income was $27,735.
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• The cost of college has
increased by 500 percent.
• Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You” was the No. 1 song in the country the week the Royals won the ’85 World Series. It would soon be replaced atop the Billboard chart by Stevie Wonder’s “Part-Time Lover,” which lasted one week at No. 1 before being usurped by the "Miami Vice" theme song.
• Danielle Steele has published 74 romance novels, R.L. Stine composed the entire Goosebumps series and J.K. Rowling wrote seven Harry Potter novels (which have since become eight movies).
• The No. 1 film at the box office the day the Royals won the World Series was "Jagged Edge." "Commando" had been the nation’s top movie for most of the playoffs, with "Back to the Future" dominating the box office before that. A few weeks later, "Rocky IV" would reach No. 1, where it would remain until early 1986.
• "The Cosby Show" was the No. 1 show on TV in 1985, followed by "Family Ties," "Murder, She Wrote," "60 Minutes" and "Cheers."
• The "Simpsons" debuted in 1989 and is still airing today. Other long-running shows that have debuted since the Royals’ last playoff game and are still on the air include "America’s Funniest Home Videos," "The Real World," "The Jerry Springer Show," "48 Hours," "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Judge Judy," "The Daily Show," "Modern Marvels" and "South Park."
• Several prominent long-running shows have also premiered and completed their entire run in the last 29 years, including the "Oprah Winfrey Show," "Law & Order," "America’s Most Wanted," "ER," "MADTv," "Rugrats," "King of the Hill," "NYPD Blue," "7th Heaven," "Friends," "Frasier," "Total Request Live," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Married… With Children" and "Seinfeld."
What does all of this mean for the Royals? Well, nothing anymore. But it sure has been a long time coming — and, as the last 29 years have shown, one never can be sure when they'll be there again.
You can follow Sam Gardner on Twitter or email him at samgardnerfox@gmail.com.
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